Kim and I spent a long weekend testing out the Roof Top Tent I won at the Cruise Moab raffle. THANKS Hugh & Safari Ltd. ! This thing is awesome!

I had never been in this area before and I have to say it is amazing. The scenery, the historical mining ruins, great camp sites all make for a perfect weekend of exploring. I will definitely be going back to help out if Rising Sun adopts any of the trails in this area.

We headed down towards St. Elmo with plans to camp out near the Pomeroy Lakes. We got within a mile of the first lake past the Mary Murphy Mine when we were denied due to some big snow drifts. I was tempted to try bashing through, but being solo, we would have been in a pickle if we got stuck.

Plan B was to head up to Grizzly Lake, but apparently there is no camping allowed up there. Instead we went up the Mount Antero road. This is a long, easy, bumpy road that leads up to a junction for Mount Antero and Baldwin Lakes. We went a ways up towards Antero after the stream crossing but were turned back by deep drifts again. We went back and headed up towards Baldwin Lakes and passed some good group camp sites along the stream. We kept heading up and the road became bumpier with some fun hill climbs through loose rock. We got almost to tree line just below the lakes and found a great campsite. There had been a large avalanche that had covered the upper shelf road so we couldn't drive any further. We hiked up to the lakes and took in the scenery before heading back to camp and cooking some dinner and enjoying a stream chilled .

Some pics:

Stopped in St. Elmo

Camp along Baldwin Lake trail

Views from above Baldwin Lake

Heading back down Mt Antero trail

The next morning we decided to hike up Poplar Gulch. The trail leaves from the start of the Tin Cup pass trail and goes up about 3 miles to a saddle before heading down towards Cottonwood canyon/pass.

Nice scenery up there

Looking forward to the Ghost Town Run and seeing more trails in this area.

Nice trip. 4Wheeling, camping and long hikes with the wife sounds wonderful.

So you can't camp at Grizzly anymore? That's news to me. I know they did post and cable work near the lake. I'm bummed.

Yeah, I was disappointed too. We stopped to talk with a Forest Service guy and he explained that there is no longer camping allowed along the corridor of 162 including Grizzly Lake. Only in designated campgrounds. It also appeared that there is no access for chalk creek and the ruins along it. There was a new gate up with a sign about a water project.

Quote:

Originally Posted by (¯`·._.·[xtr3m3]·._.·´¯)

That looks awesome. The 60 looks great with the RTT on. Glad to hear it worked out for you. How did your rear springs hold up?

It was fun wheeling the 60. It did pretty well considering the springs are flat. It made the bumpy road even bumpier and the extra weight from the tent and all the gear had us sitting pretty low. No money for a lift unfortunately.